The eating lower calories is no problem, if you make good choices you can gorge yourself and stay below 1400 per day, its all the bookkeeping that I get bored with.

I'm almost 2 weeks post knee op, can only walk .5 miles a day. I'm curious to see if weight loss accelerates when I can go more. Best secret food - Latortilla wrapsI love sandwiches, this is a good substitute at only 50 cal per.

My low fat gumbo starts with a slurry instead of a roux. I brown a couple of pounds in the oven by putting the flour on a cookie sheet at 350 until it gets nice and brown. To make a slurry just mix some browned flour with water. Other than that, all ingredients are the same.

I don't put sausage in my seafood gumbo, but I just can't use turkey sausage in andouille gumbo, might as well not make it. Jacob's make a great chicken andouille, not sure if it has fewer calories.

quote:The eating lower calories is no problem, if you make good choices you can gorge yourself and stay below 1400 per day, its all the bookkeeping that I get bored with

at the risk of making this sound too simplistic; you eat fewer calories than you burn..you WILL lose weight. its a pain to keep up with calories no doubt..but if you do it for a month or so..you get pretty good at estimating the calories in food so hitting 1400 isn't so hard. here's a couple of 'rule of thumb' tips (enjoy or laugh at me or piihb):

- you burn about 10 calories lb/day if you're not active. potentially up to 12-14 if you are moderately active. so for a 250lb guy, assume your body will 'help you out' by burning roughly 2500 a day. to lose weight..eat fewer than that.

- 1/lb a week is a healthy loss rate. dont go fad diets and dont starve yourself..you will fail. the best way is to take it slow and do it evenly over time so you and your body adjust to a new way of eating. sure it feels great to say you lost 60lbs in 3 weeks..but you're likely not going to keep that off in the long haul..eventually you WILL GET HUNGRY

- at about 10% loss or so..you will likely stall. this is normal. you didnt gain that extra 60lbs overnight. you probably added 10-15lbs a year over 4-5 years. your body likes equilibrium so in the process of losing, dont be discouraged at periods of stoppages. in fact, i was reading recently in men's health magazine that you SHOULD plan to stop for a short period after you've lost about 10% of your body weight and let your body get used to it.

- buy a good scale and weigh yourself EVERY SINGLE DAY. ignore the 'only weigh on mondays' crap..your weight will fluctuate by as much as 5lbs in a given 7 day period and you need to see the 'lows' as well as the 'highs' so you dont get discouraged.

- chart your progress in a spreadsheet. nothing fancy..just put the date & weight each day on there. this is an extremely powerful tool as you can see your loss over time and its great to see that 'downward trend' average on a chart for those times you get stuck for several weeks.

- dont give up if you get stuck at the same weight for a day..or even several weeks. if it was working for you before..stick with your eating/exercise plan..it will eventually start to drop again.

- set little 'call of duty' perks/milestones. whatever you want...dropping to the next '09' for instance..or even weight goals like '10lbs down', '15lbs down', etc. these are also highly motivating to 'cross off' as you achieve them and give you little milestones to keep you on track the whole time

- find something to motivate you like getting that hot chick in the office to smile at you more when she walks by. amazing how motivating women can be when it comes to losing weight ;)

- dump soft drinks completely. stick with coffee, tea and water. you dont need any of that crap diet or not.

- find a good 'strength training/aerobic' challenge. p90x and all that other crap is based on the simple concept that you need to mix these 2 things in equal doses to maximize weight loss effectiveness. i have a routine where i go up 8 flights of stairs when i need to hit the restroom at work; and do 40 pushups..and take stairs 2-at-a-time. i do this about 2-3x a day and it makes a huge difference.

- stop thinking by running 3 miles you will drop 2lbs. DO NOT REWARD HARD EXERCISE WITH A BIG_ASS CHEESEBURGER. this is the hardest thing i tell people. yes, get a good workout in..but dont assume its going to magically cause you to drop lbs..in fact i would go so far as to say diet constitues 90% of your weight loss and exercise 10%. iow, people get discouraged when they workout to the point of collapsing and dont see the weight loss they want. limiting what you put in your mouth is FAR more effective than trying to workout for 3 hours a day. why? because eventually you'll get tired or pull a muscle..very few people can keep up a hard workout regiment but most CAN stick to an adjusted eating plan.

- finally, put your body's engine to work for you. i would highly recommend concentrating on your legs first..take a spin class or do something to fire up those thigh muscles and get those things working to help you burn fat. the more muscle you have, the easier it is to burn fat because the more of your body you turn to muscle, the more energy/calories it will consume to power those muscles.

- quit worrying about your abs..you can literally wait until you've lost almost all the weight you want, then do crunches for a month and see your abs..you dont have to do crunches for 2 years before you'll see definition..because UNTIL THAT LAYER OF FAT IS GONE FROM YOUR STOMACH YOU WILL NEVER SEE AB DEFINITION NO MATTER IF YOU DO A MILLION CRUNCHES A DAY FOR THE NEXT YEAR.

The dismal dawn of the 1,700-calorie salad is upon us. With as much saturated fat as 37 strips of bacon and more calories than 11 Taco Bell Fresco beef Tacos, this abdomen expander earns a well-deserved spot on our list of the Worst Foods in America.

- weigh at same time every day..do NOT weigh in right after heavy workout when you're still dehydrated..you might be as much as 5lbs lighter but thats just water weight

- if you get stuck..vary your calories (kinda like the whole 'muscle confusion' thing that works so well for p90x and insanity)..try eating *MORE* calories for a few days then go back to your lower calorie intake. alot of times this will break a 'stall'. remember your body will fight to stay at a consistent weight..it doesnt really like to GAIN or LOSE weight which is why it took you years to get to the point you're at now.

I could use some good low fat recipes. When I dieted about 8-10 years ago my menu was very short but I lost a ton of weight. My diet consisted of the following.

Some type of steak/chicken/fish & sweet potatoes (used to put splend on it to make it taste a little better)

Some type of steak/chicken/fish & brown rice or brown pasta

Oatmeal mixed with chocolate protein powder

And I used to eat lots of fish oils pills (about 5-10 a day), olive oil (usually 2-3teaspoons a day mixed in with protein shakes), and natural nuts (mostly peanuts and almonds). I also ate a lot of protein and restricted my carbs to breakfast or after working out. Carbs are best eaten directly after a workout.

quote:avoid eating out if at all possible...too many hidden calories..just read where the 'on the border' taco salad has 1700 calories!

All great tips.

Another thing about eating out. Even some of the most benign looking dishes from restaurants can have up to 1k to 3k of sodium. That massive amount of sodium can cause a spike in your weight that sends you into a misery spiral when you think you did a great job eating the marinated chicken breast and veggies. So BEWARE!

quote:I have done 1500 calories per day 3 days and 2000 calories on the 4th day to create metabolic confusion.

I used to use calorie cycling and thought it worked great. I would cycle between 2,500cal, 2,000cal, and 1,500cal. I would eat the most calorie days on workout days and the less on rest days. A good way to shock your body. Something I always used was cheat days to help spike the metabolism. I would eat 6 days strict and go all out one day a week and eat whatever I wanted. Your body can get used to a certain calorie intake and will slow down metabolic wise. It's our survival mechanism for starvation periods when we would have to go without food for long periods back in the stone ages. Shocking it can be enough to jump start that metabolism again. I never dieted hard core (for me around 1500 cal or less) for more than 4-6 weeks at a time. I would jump my calories up to say maintenance (caloric intake to maintain weight) which was around 2250-2500 for me for a week or two and then go back to dieting hard core. Just something that can help you get over that hump.

for me..having a desk job..the worst thing was lunch. that was my BIG TICKET calorie-wise..would go out like 3-4 days a week with co-workers..and ALWAYS came back from lunch feeling like crap.

*if* you can do it..swap lunch out entirely for protein powder or something. yeah i know..this is a bit of a stretch for alot of people but honestly, it only took me about a month to get used to the fact i was no longer eating a big lunch and now this isn't a problem for me.

that way you can splurge a bit at dinner and not go to bed feeling hungry...for me..sitting in front of the tv at night watching sports is my "munch time" and now that i'm able to have a pretty big dinner, i'm not tempted as much to do that.

also, swap nuts for chips. chips are bad bad BAD. nuts have alot of fat, but they're 100x better for you than cheetoes and the fat makes you feel full before you go through an entire can. ..of course those wasabi almonds also contain crack, so watch out.